How to find a family office to back your business

So how do you go about finding a family investment office to back your business?

Not all family offices are so named, making them tough to pinpoint via web or LinkedIn search. Some don’t even have a website. To broaden your search, I recommend creating a wish list of wealthy people you’d love as backers and using LinkedIn to identify mutual contacts to introduce you.

Networking offline is equally important. Get out into the community first. Get to know everybody, it’s best to let the investment community know who you are and what your company does before you go actively trolling for funding.

Once you’ve got some leads on family offices, call or email to ask whether they invest in early-stage companies, what startups their current portfolio includes, and what industries interest them. The reality is, if you had a list of 100 family offices and personal contacts at each of them, only five or so would be legitimately interested in directly investing.

Chasing after cold leads is a waste of time. People say fundraising is a full-time job. But if you only go for the hot leads that might actually convert into investments, it’s not.

Cut to the chase by emailing an abbreviated version of your pitch deck to hot leads. It should be designed to grab their attention. Three to four slides are plenty, The idea is to avoid overwhelming them and instead intrigue them enough so they want a follow-up meeting.

If you get the meeting, let investors know you’re attracted to their experience or interest in your industry. Emphasize that you’re not just looking at them as another rich person, but you came to them specifically because you think they can add some value.

In other words, show respect for the fact that these families constantly get tapped for capital, and they’ll be more likely to welcome you into their world.

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